RP-1 (rocket propellant 1)

A highly-refined, special grade of kerosene used in a wide variety of rocket
engines. Together with liquid
oxygen it provides, or has provided, the propellant for the first stages
of rockets such as the Atlas, Thor, Delta, Titan I, and Saturn 1B and V.

RP-1's formulation stemmed from a program begun in 1953 by Rocketdyne to
improve the engines being developed for the Navaho and Atlas missiles. Prior to that a large number of petroleum-based rocket
propellants had been used. Robert Goddard had begun with gasoline, and other experimental engines had been powered
by kerosene, diesel oil, paint thinner, and jet-fuel kerosene. The wide
variation in physical properties among fuels of the same class led to the
identification of narrow-range petroleum fractions, embodied in 1954 in
the standard United States kerosene rocket fuel RP-1, covered by Military
Specification MIL-R-25576. In Russia, similar specifications were developed
for kerosene under the specifications T-1 and RG-1. RP-1 is a kerosene fraction,
obtained from crude oil with a high napthene content which is subjected
to further treatment, including acid washing and sulfur dioxide extraction.